Hyperlegible 008: Golden Age with Mike Solana

Welcome to Episode 008 of Hyperlegible, a Not Boring Radio production.

To find all of the excellent essays we’ve discussed on Hyperlegible, head to Readwise.

Golden Age with Mike Solana is live at: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

The guest selection process for Hyperlegible is three parts art, half part science, and four parts serendipity.

It boils down to: if someone writes an essay I love, I want to talk to them about it.

Sometimes, I’ve never heard of someone, then they write something amazing and I want to meet them and learn about them. Others, I read everything a person has written, so I have to wait for something that resonates extra, and that encapsulates how I think of them perfectly.

Mike Solana, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Pirate Wires, is in the latter camp. I read Pirate Wires every morning when I wake up; its Three Morning Takes is the best-written way to load three things that have happened in the world into my brain. Pirate Wires’ staff is envy-inducingly talented, each with their own voice that all fit the Pirate Wires voice.

Every so often, though, the EIC comes down from his EIC chair, whips out a keyboard, and writes essays of his own. I get an extra little dopamine hit when I see those.

Last week, Solana wrote a piece called Golden Age that sits in the bullseye of the Venn Diagram between things I’m interested in — building new cities, cutting red tape, and painting an optimistic vision for America — and what I love about Solana’s writing — “I took a few days off from the internet last week to spend some time with my family at Disney World, and I found the place, as I have found it since my early childhood trips to Fort Wilderness, almost overwhelmingly inspiring” — that I had to talk to him about it.

In our first LIVE Hyperlegible conversation (thanks to Matt Marlinski at The Manhattan Lab for hosting!), we discuss:

* Solana summarizes Golden Age

* Disney World as a blueprint for charter cities

* America’s building paralysis vs. China’s ability to build Disney’s vision in Shenzen

* Why Disney is the guy for Solana, the one he wants his career to look like

* Rare earths, chips, and regulatory free zones

* Scaling Pirate Wires like Disney scaled Disney

* Why past charter city efforts have failed

* What life in Golden City could look like

* Special development zones vs. regulation gridlock

* Culture change through media and narrative

* Who could be the next Walt Disney?

* Solana on “Moral Inversion” and cultural decay

* Final takeaway: “Where there is no vision, the people perish”

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Mike Solana. Links to a transcript, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts are right down below so you can listen early and often.

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There Are Many Ways to Hyperlegible

If you’re the reading type, I used Claude to turn the messy YouTube transcript into something well-formatted and clean.

Hyperlegible 008 - Mike Solana - Transcript

As always, you can find the full conversation wherever you like by subscribing to Not Boring Radio:

YouTube:

Spotify:

Apple Podcasts:

While you’re there, give us a like, comment, and subscribe so we can bring great essays to more people.

You can also find links to all of the essays and conversations at readwise.io/hyperlegible. Thanks to our friends and sponsors at Readwise, you can head there for a free trial and get all Hyperlegible articles automatically added to your account.

If you want more to read, here are two of Solana’s reading recommendations, one of his and one by QNTM. Save them to Readwise and come back to them:

Solana’s favorite essay he’s written:

⁠Moral Inversion⁠

One book Solana thinks everyone should read:

⁠There is No Antimemetics Division

Big thanks to Solana for joining me, and to Jim Portela for editing!

Thanks for listening,

Packy⁠